California Uber Alles
by SaturnineSunshine
Summary: C POV preseries-pilot. The feelings were always there"She was looking at him with that coy smile that he knew meant she would just be a freak in bed and he wished he wasn't thinking that way because her dance was way more provocative than it should be."


**A/N**: Whoa this is a lot longer than I thought it was going to be. Orginially it was only something inspired by something else written on ff about Chuck moving away. This is way more sexualized since they're older and I hope I don't get sued for royalities. I should be writing my term paper but Chuck just calls to me and I can't help myself. I just started adding more and more scenes that kept popping into my head. Also it got more raunchy than I originally anticpiated.

**Summary**: She was looking at him with that coy smile that he knew meant she would just be a freak in bed and he wished he wasn't thinking that way because her dance was way more provocative than it should be.

**Disclaimer**: This was oringianlly inspired by another person's story with almost the exact same idea, so don't be offended. I just go inspired. Also, lyrics for Califnoria Uber Alles by the Dead Kennedys is in this. I don't know if this is OOC or not but I made Chuck a fan of punk just because I was listening to this song while I wrote it and it really adds to it, if you know the song or you want to listen to it. Its awesome.

* * *

Chuck had always been sure that his father would try to ruin him. Humiliate him, destroy him, it was all the same. Pretty dark eyes batted eyelashes at him with the innocence of a seductress, proclaiming Big Bad Bart was only trying to prepare him for the cruel, cruel world.

Except Chuck already knew the world. Even when her pretty eyes seduced him, he knew the truth. He had a trust fund and the only real ambition he had was to please his father.

He was starting to think that wish would never come to fruition.

It was this realization that was the only comfort to him as he joined his father in his study only to be told that they would be moving to Beijing.

And yes, it was as callous as that.

"Your teachers said they saw you lighting up behind the girls' building."

"There were many attractions there."

Pause.

"So if that concludes today's 'I'm very disappointed in you, Charles' speech, I do have a life."

Bart gave him a curt nod. As Chuck turned to exit the study, he wished he had been quicker about it.

"One last thing, Charles."

At least Bart and Chuck had in common the ability to be provoked too easily.

"Yes, Father?"

He still had respect for the old man.

"We're moving to Beijing."

And that was that.

* * *

It really did perfect his day. Because at that very moment, he was on his way to his best friend's very temperamental girlfriend to tell her the news that would make her cry out in distress.

It wasn't that he was egocentric.

That much.

He loved gloating about how much impact he had on her life.

But he knew this would have more impact than usual. With her best friend on the run and his best friend ignoring the both of them, they bonded in the art of loneliness because truthfully, neither of them had any other real friends.

Truth be told, they had bonded. In ways that Chuck still couldn't comprehend. But he knew dangerous and deadly things that Serena didn't even know. It that was danger in itself. Because bonding with women, at least the way Chuck Bass did it, led to different endgames than just watching TCM with her.

And as he walked into her room with the bathroom door slightly ajar, he knew that wasn't he only thing he was privy to.

"I thought we talked about this."

It was the only way he could pick her up gingerly and place her back on her bed where she belonged and not on the floor of her cold bathroom with the water running. It was the only way he could shy away from the topic that he had really come to tell her about.

She looked up at him with those eyes that he knew had more depth than could meet the eye.

"What are you doing here, Bass?"

"Good thing I did," he muttered.

"Do you think Serena's ever coming back?" Blair asked quietly.

"No."

He had to be stern with her. It was why she respected him. They told each other things that they would never tell anyone else. And he would have to be even more stern with her before they parted ways for good.

He hated how much that hurt.

"Did you come to tell me something?" Blair asked after he had cleaned her face of that cumbersome make up that would always run.

"No," Chuck answered.

There would be time for her to hate him soon enough.

* * *

Chuck didn't put anything past Bart. He knew his father had a life time of experience when it came to his only son.

He didn't expect this, though. It started out innocently enough. He knew he was becoming attached but he couldn't bear the thought of Blair being left alone. She was too fragile. And imagining her fall to pieces was much worse than witnessing it. Because when he witnessed it, at least he could wipe those tears away.

She would smile at him and everything would be okay again.

Vaguely, as he stepped into his father's office, he wondered if this was what falling in love was like.

But Bart looked up with those cruel stone eyes of his and Chuck immediately shut those thoughts down. Basses didn't fall in love. They weren't bred for it. Chuck didn't fall in love. Because in the long run, what was really the point?

That didn't mean that he didn't care. Because he did. Such beauty and perfection should be illegal to mar. And he knew he was the only one who could stop that sort of destruction.

He didn't know why, but he cared. He couldn't explain it.

"I don't want to leave."

And now his father knew it too.

Bart looked up with a blank expression and if Chuck knew his father, it was like he knew exactly what was going on here.

Even if he did feign well adapted innocence.

"We're leaving for Beijing, Charles," Bart informed him.

This was not up for discussion.

"I want to stay here."

For a moment, Chuck was sure that was the end of the discussion. He and Bart weren't like normal families. They were barely even a family. They didn't fight about Chuck staying out too late or having The Talk. They just co-existed and Bart would pass judgment on him for everything he did.

That was why he and Blair got along so well. They just... connected. And they didn't know why. They didn't know how. It wasn't right. But Chuck had never truly wanted anything before. Not like this. All he knew was he really wanted to stay. And he was going to follow that instinct.

And Bart said something that Chuck had not expected.

"Why?"

Chuck looked up from his fascinating shoes, knowing he had given something away. All he could think of to why was another syllable that blared through his mind. He wondered if Bart could see the softness in his eyes.

He hoped not.

He couldn't bear being that transparent.

Then again, he was also a master of deflection.

"I have never asked you for anything before," Chuck reasoned. All he wanted was this. Even if he didn't know why. He cringed at his father's cold and humorless laughter.

"You ask me for everything," Bart told him. "Or do you not remember that stint in custody for drunken disorderly?"

Chuck exhaled in slight frustration. Not that he would ever let his father know he made him emote.

"This is different than wanting to be comfortable after having to sit between guys like Spike and Spyder. This is something I need."

There was the word. It had been lingering there in the back of his mind.

Chuck Bass didn't _need_ anything. He liked the fast lifestyle and even faster women. He enjoyed scheming and plots concocted with a deceptive and enrapturing woman. He reveled in the money, power, and privilege. But he never really thought he was in desperate need for it. He just didn't know an existence without it.

But an existence without her--

He had to stop his train of thought. Because thoughts like those led to dangerous territories. He never let himself go that far before.

"What do you need, Charles?"

And for an instant, Chuck was sure his father knew. Bart knew something about his son that even Chuck didn't know. He for sure wasn't about to admit to it. He wasn't ready for it.

"I can't give you what you need if you refuse to tell me what it is."

It was in that sentence that Chuck was almost positive Bart knew. He wouldn't have humored Chuck like that before. But he needed something. It pleased Bart that there was finally some constant that didn't involve inhaling white crystals.

"Charles," Bart sighed and for once, Chuck was sure his father wasn't calling him that just to spite him. "Someday your pride is going to get in the way of something that you want even more than this. Something you need even more than this. And you will wish you had it in you to say the words that would give you everything."

Chuck just stared, hating the foreboding feeling in his chest that told him even after his father was gone, he would be nothing but right.

"Thank you for the advise, Father," Chuck said and stalked out of the room.

He knew it didn't change a damn thing.

* * *

_I am governor Jerry Brown_

_My aura smiles and never frowns_

_Soon I will be president_

He took her to a club. He was the only one around them that enjoyed the angst of punk. Nathaniel liked mainstream hip hop and Serena had been more of a pop girl.

Blair was the only one that humored him when it came to the Dead Kennedys (if you could call that punk) and even the Stooges and Sex Pistols. He liked the lot. She understood angst like him and just smiled at him with a roll of her eyes and went to those clubs.

Chuck Bass didn't dance. But he was perverted enough to admit that he liked watching her. It was a game they played and Nate never noticed how her body would twist and turn under dark eyes that never should have been tempted with the pleasure of it.

Then again, Nate thought punk was too confusing anyway.

It was pretty straight forward.

Chuck knew tonight was the night. Even though Blair ordered her dirty martinis and looked at him with slight disdain at his habit of scotch, Chuck knew tonight was the beginning of him ruining everything for them. And he hated himself for it.

_Carter power will soon go away_

_I will be Fuhrer one day_

_I will command all of you_

She was smiling and he could almost forget that he would soon leave her forever. And how much it was killing him.

It was all very confusing.

"Care for a dance?" Chuck asked.

"You don't dance, Bass," Blair reminded him lightly. "Especially to this music."

"I was talking about you," Chuck said pointedly, gesturing to the throng of glistening bodies.

"You're disgusting."

"It amuses me that you think this is news to me."

Though she had to admit to herself, when she listened to it, it was all so... Chuck. He liked control. And there was control to this sort of chaos.

_Zen fascists will control you_

_100% natural_

_You will jog for the Master Race_

_And always wear the happy face_

"I knew you wouldn't do it," he sighed at her silence. Her eyes narrowed and this was all very familiar.

"You're such a jerk sometimes," she said, but she was laughing as she went up. It wasn't that he thought she wouldn't do it. It was just a dance and they would tease each other all the time. But as she undulated with the rest of the crowd that definitely knew who Sid Vicious was (and like Blair Waldorf would ever be caught at some sordid place like this without the esteemed protection of Chuck Bass) Chuck realized how very wrong it was. He was her boyfriend's best friend. And he knew propriety dictated that this was not the way.

She was looking at him with that coy smile that he knew meant she would just be a freak in bed and he wished he wasn't thinking that way because her dance was way more provocative than it should be.

He decided this was the best song ever composed. He was going to buy all of Dead Kennedys albums that were ever made.

_Now it's 1984_

_Knock, knock at your front door_

_It's the suede denim secret police_

_They have come for your uncool niece_

Her exaggerated slow and seductive movements were too much for him to handle. He grabbed her hand, dragging her away from freaks who liked Sid Vicious and their probing eyes. He didn't like it.

"Was it not to your taste?" she teased.

"That was the problem," he taunted back. "You are too tantalizing for your own good."

Her nose wrinkled as he laughed.

As sharp as a sting and as quick as a slap it came out because he knew he was far too gone for his own good.

He had infiltrated her room. Before she would just protest him sprawling all over her bed just because he knew it annoyed her. But they were both sitting there primly with even more exaggerated silence. He was staring at her and she was staring back. No music was in the background and he knew no one was coming in to interrupt them.

The fact that this was so wrong made it just that more delicious for him.

He literally had no idea who the hell Nate Archibald was.

She was smiling tentatively in that way he knew that she was nervous. And he knew that she was thinking of the exact same thing that he was. His father was right when he stared into those cold blue depths.

He did need her. It was her. And he was going to claim her for his own.

"Where's Nate?"

He couldn't help but ask in the last bid for sanity.

"I don't know," she answered in a soft voice that made his blood sear at the very sultry nature of it. "I never know anymore."

That was good enough for him.

He could do this. He really could. It would be just as easy as any other but with the addition of a little heartbreak. Because of the way she was leaning into him, he knew this girl had the capability to break the heart he realized Basses may have access to.

If they wanted it.

And he wanted it more than anything.

He needed just couldn't do it to respected her too much.

He pulled away with as simple a sentence as his father gave him, if only a little more specific.

"I'm moving to Beijing tomorrow night."

She blinked at him and he was sure her face would crumple or at the very least ask why the hell he had waited so long to tell her this. Especially when they were both about to give and receive something that changed lives forever.

"Get out."

She didn't even give him that much.

* * *

_Come quietly to the camp_

His shower was running. In the recession of his mind, he could feel her presence as the steam curled from beneath his bathroom door. He sat up carefully, knowing for some undoubtable reason that door would be unlocked.

She would leave it unlocked only for him.

He slid from his bed, laying his hand on the warm knob to turn it only a fraction of an inch to propel it forward. The bathroom was almost opaque with the thickness of the steam but he trudged forward, shrugging out of his shirt at the mere heat of the room.

He looked up to the not so stranger in his shower.

He should have known she would always find him.

_You'd look as nice as a drawstring lamp_

Her naked figure was distorted from the door.

It wasn't anything he could stop himself from doing. He reached forward, pulling the door forward to reveal something his eyes never should have been able to see. It was too perfect. She was too perfect.

Her midnight hair spilled down her back, reaching lower down her porcelain flesh as the water weighted it. Nothing was left to the imagination as he stared blatantly as her own unrepentant eyes looked upon him.

The spray hit her immodestly, slicking her flesh so that Chuck was sure he knew what she would feel like if he were able to touch her right then.

_Don't you worry it's only a shower_

Chuck was sure there was a reason he had rid himself already of his shirt and maybe it did have something to do with the heat that was already making him sweat. His pants and everything else joined the floor when he realized her clothing was nowhere to be seen. Just imagining that she had come here without a stitch of clothing on to cleanse herself of those dirty thoughts of him that he knew plagued her mind in his own bathroom was not anything he had experienced before.

It was her alluring eyes. They begged him in a way he could never disagree that he desperately had wanted to see before.

He felt his hot blood within him spread everywhere and this desperate attraction like he had never felt before was something that you just didn't make up. He gripped the side, sure that any moment now she was going to scream at him with that precious voice of hers for invading her privacy.

Even though she had invaded his first.

He was sure he would never mind her violating him.

He would welcome it.

It never came.

But he was sure he was going to.

_For your clothes here's a pretty flower_

"It looks as though your clothing has made a break for it," he breathed at her. She receded into the back and he knew she was making room for him.

Ecstatic was a word he had never used, sure it had been overused in its time.

He wasn't shy about using it now.

"I would always have spares for you."

Still she said nothing. He stepped into the wet haven, closing the door behind him. The water was so scalding he could barely see her through the mist. That was not something he wanted to deal with. He wanted to reach for her and touch something that no man had ever touched before. And he wanted to keep doing it. He would touch and touch her again until there was nothing but him all over her pretty skin.

And she would know nothing but him. He took a hesitant step towards her, sure it was too good to be true.

He suddenly realized it was.

"Touch me," was the last thing he heard before he went to reach for her.

And then he woke up.

Chuck sat up in his bed, sweating an obscene amount. His eyes immediately went to the bathroom door that was open, shrouded in the darkness that plagued the rest of his suite. He felt largely uncomfortable underneath his sheets, annoyed that there wasn't even the room service twins to help him out with it.

Not that it would do any good.

Blair had unceremoniously booted him from her life when he told her that he was leaving hers for good.

That disgustingly beautiful and dirty dream only confirmed what he had been dreading.

It was too late.

He had fallen for his best friend's girl.

* * *

"Tell me you want me to stay."

It was the only thing he could think of to say at the last night he would be in her glorious proximity. She had avoided him and to his disgust, he found himself needing her more and more since his fantasy of her. It was simple. Cliché, almost. But it told him what he needed to know.

Chuck Bass always got what he wanted.

The only answer she gave him was spilling her martini in his lap.

_God damnit, Waldorf, you ruined my pants._

She was the hottest thing he had ever seen.

He was sure she was just doing it to drive him insane.

_Low and behold, you hot and nasty bitch, it's working._

He could feel it. This was the beginning of something he couldn't name. As she stared at him while some guy put his arms around her shoulder (even though it wasn't Nate-- where the hell _was_ he?) he realized that jealousy was not such a bitch emotion as he thought. This was giving him some serious pain in his chest and he felt it rising in him.

Pure unadulterated anger.

He knew he liked punk for a reason.

_Die on organic poison gas_

_Serpents eggs already hatched_

_You will croak, you little clown_

_When you mess with President Brown_

He was on her immediately, frightening off someone who was never really worth a damn. Even her boyfriend wasn't here to see it. She shook off his possessive touch, angry that she almost reveled in his violation of her. That she had wanted it.

That she still sort of wanted it. She knew he was going to use this "I'll never see you again" thing to his advantage. Everything always occurred to him.

"Who the hell was that?" Chuck demanded.

"Have you spoken to Nate lately?" Blair asked innocently, batting those eyelashes at him. "I'm sure hew would like to be informed that his best friend is leaving the country forever."

He knew the subtext.

_Nate is my boyfriend so back the hell off._

But if he was smart enough to read her subtext, he was smart enough not to believe a word of it. Her eyes still didn't match her mouth.

"I told him," Chuck said. He leaned into her ear temptingly. "But not before I told you."

_Right after I almost had you in your own bed._

God, she wanted that. And it was all so wrong.

_When you mess with President Brown_

Her eyes clouded in fury as she threw her elbow at him, knocking him sideways against the bar, the harsh corner cutting into him. He stared after her retreating form, not able to contain how impressed he was. She was a feisty one. He never really considered the strength in that petite form.

And there he was thinking about sleeping with her again.

So he followed her.

What else was a Bass to do?

* * *

He was omnipresent. She shouldn't have let her guard down. And just like every other society floozy, his wit and charm was so disarming that she was sure his exotic good looks were going to lure her to bed at any moment.

Well she wouldn't be like that. She had a boyfriend. And he shouldn't be wanting this either. Nate was his best friend.

Then again, maybe that's what told her that this was real.

"Tell me you want me to stay."

His voice was dark in her ear and she shuddered. She should have smelled his scent of concentrated scotch from the other side of the room. She wiped hastily at her tears so when she turned around he couldn't take advantage of her.

"Why?" she demanded. He studied her deeply and she knew that the both of them both knew the answer to that. They were both just too prideful.

And _taken_.

"Because you do," he said with his simple arrogance. "There's something here and you and I both know it. So do it. Ask me to stay."

His body was pressing her too intimately against the wall away from the very public party. She was sure he was willing to take advantage of her at any moment. She took a deep breath, opting for the more truthful scenario.

"What difference would it make?" she asked with soft vulnerability. His eyes flickered, obviously not expecting her approach.

"You admit it," he said with a smirk.

"I don't know what you want me to say," Blair said flippantly, trying to blow him off.

He wasn't having it.

"Say you need me," he uttered seductively in her ear. She pushed on his chest, finding his feet give way.

"Don't be a bastard," she sneered.

"It just comes naturally," he shrugged.

"What exactly it is that you think you're doing, Bass?" Blair asked.

"Last night happened for a reason," he said. "We both know it. As well as we both know the existence of Nate."

"Does it even matter to you?" she asked.

"Does it to you?" he parried.

"Intelligent," Blair snapped. And he almost said it. He almost said what he wanted to tell her since he first witnessed it on that bar.

_He cheated on you with her._

But he couldn't. Damnit, he just cared about her too much.

"And Serena?" he asked.

"What does she have to do with anything?" Blair asked but they both knew it. Nate had feelings for her. And Chuck could guarantee that his for Blair were a hell of a lot stronger. And more intricate.

He began to walk backwards away from her, never leaving her eyes.

"Fine," she snapped and Chuck realized to his dismay that he never saw her tears before in the dim light. "You want me to say it? Don't you dare leave me too. Not like her. Not like everyone else."

He didn't have to ask.

Nate would have had to ask.

And that was the real difference.

He trapped her suddenly against the wall, his hand placed above her head, caging her in. And he said what his best judgment told him. His heart was one tricky bastard.

"Come home with me."

He was using the bedroom voice that got every other girl to drop to her knees. But looking at her, he knew she was different. He always knew. That didn't make him stop feeling this... thing.

And now she knew it too.

"Chuck..." she whispered, shaking her head. It was then that Chuck made the decision that someday he would hear that same syllable come gasping through those lips of hers when she didn't have a boyfriend as an attachment.

So he manipulated her. It was all he could think of to do.

"I'm leaving tonight," he said into her hair. They were too close for just mere friends. Then again, he was starting to think that they were always more than that, whether they knew it or not.

"You think I don't know how you're manipulating me," she said with disdain. And he had to smile.

"Only you would."

He was hesitating on her body and she wasn't pulling away. She could knee him in the groin. Hit him where it hurt. All she could say to him was the truth.

Like always.

"You know I haven't..." Blair cleared her throat. "Yet."

"I don't care," he said gently, his hand descending her waist.

Inappropriately.

So that didn't work at all.

"You do with other girls."

She knew this. He didn't really care for virgins. They were too...delicate.

His words, not hers.

"You're not like other girls," he uttered and her knees went weak. She always thought it was a cliché statement but then again, it had never happened to her before. He had almost pushed her over the edge. Nothing was occurring to him in the usual order. There was no best friends or boyfriends. The truth was he was leaving for good. And he would never get this chance again. Hell, he would never even see Nate again. "I'll miss you... more than anything else."

She pulled away then.

"I'm drunk," she said bluntly. She wasn't sure if it was meant to deter him but she was sure it had the opposite of that effect. She knew she was just giving him an excuse.

_Sorry, Nathaniel. We were drunk._

Because he had the same excuse. He was always intoxicated.

It happened in an instant. It was so fast and she was so sure that she felt comfortable in his arms because they had done this before.

But she knew they hadn't.

Her back was flat against the wall, his hands intertwined in her locks. She gripped at his shirt before she realized whose tongue was currently down her throat.

And how frightening it was that she was seriously considering to lose her virginity tonight.

To him.

"I'm sorry," she gasped, propelling him away from her body. "I just can't."

He wasn't really sure what the literal burning in his chest was as he watched her run from him. If he hadn't known any better, he was sure it was heartbreak.

Then again, he didn't have a heart to break.

It was all a wash.

"Did you tell her?"

Once again, Chuck seemed to have the propensity to have his father take him by surprise. He could still taste Blair's lipstick smeared across his face and was sure his father knew it too.

"What?" he asked dizzily, still unsure of what he had almost done.

Bart Bass sighed, approaching his son.

"Maybe it would have gone better if you actually told her you had feelings for her."

"Thank you, Father," Chuck said blandly, "but she has a boyfriend."

"Who is your best friend, if I recall," Bart said. "But it didn't seem to bother her."

"Maybe it should have."

"I had your things packed," Bart said instead. "The jet's waiting."

"I don't understand why Beijing is a better home base than New York," Chuck muttered, still resistant.

"Love does cloud judgement."

"Love," Chuck sneered. "Hardly."

"Who said I was talking about you?" Bart asked. "Maybe you're lucky I found myself someone too."

"What?" Chuck asked in confusion.

"I had them send your things back to your suite," Bart sighed.

Chuck was stunned.

"Thank you."

It was the only time he ever thanked his father without malice or sarcasm.

And he was sure his father was just making excuses.

* * *

It didn't go over well. He could tell from the look in her eyes. But instead, this time, he told his best friend first. Because his best friend was his best friend even if he did try on several subconscious occasions to get his girlfriend into bed.

He knew Nate would just act like a buffer.

He could always read Blair Waldorf's eyes.

"I could kill you."

She was livid. He had no doubt in her proclamation as the Captain abhorred Nate on his choice to go to USC instead of Dartmouth.

"I have no doubt of that."

"You make me sick."

To be honest, that stung a little.

Then again, he could always read her subtext.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," he said honestly. She recoiled from his lingering gaze. She didn't want him to be sorry. But he was still arrogant so it worked to fuel her rage.

"Don't flatter yourself," Blair snapped. "You lied to get me into bed, behold your failure."

"It wasn't for lack of trying," Chuck spat back, too angry at his stupid lustful infatuation to tell her the real truth. He didn't have the time.

"Hey," Nate said in the sullen way he had adopted as of late. He kissed Blair on the cheek but she looked unmoved, still glaring at Chuck. "What's up?"

He was oblivious to the tense atmosphere as no one answered, just staring at each other.

"I was talking to your dad," Nate interrupted the silence. "He was talking to Lily."

Lily.

Of course.

It all made sense.

"You should have heard him."

"Heard him what?" Blair asked delicately, still not breaking from Chuck's hard gaze. Nate laughed.

"About how the only ambition Chuck ever exhibited was ambition to stay in the states," he said. "He never realized how stubborn his son was until he refused to move to Beijing. I never knew you cared, man."

Chuck ignored Nate's attempt at sarcasm as he watched Blair's face falter.

He just hoped she wasn't running off to the bathroom.

* * *

She looked beautiful. As usual. It wasn't really a surprise. Her darkened locks were swept back in a headband, her black lace dress clinging to her form. And Nate wouldn't even notice. The blast was a simple one. One almost everyone had been anticipating for a year.

"It's about time," Chuck said with a bored tone. "Things were getting... dull around here."

What he really didn't want to see was Blair pulling Nate into her own room behind locked doors. Classy, Waldorf. Losing your virginity at a party thrown by your mother.

"When I get back?" Nate offered when Chuck mimed lighting up. His eyes lingered on Blair's stockinged legs, sure they weren't there just to taunt him.

"If he gets back."

But she was. He knew that even under her light tone, she was there just taunting him. He watched those legs walk away from him, this time sure they weren't just for show.

He would know them soon. He was sure of it.

"So I guess she's back for good."

He watched Blair's blank expression as Kati and Is looked at her curiously. He just smirked, knocking back his scotch. The time for action was now.

She trembled as he cornered her away from the party.

"Nate will be back any minute," she said as Serena made yet another departure after her re-entrance into society after half a year.

"I highly doubt it," Chuck sighed. "He's too enraptured with her appearance to really notice you, now doesn't he? Even bartering sex won't work against the Golden One."

"Shut up," Blair said, her voice almost at her breaking point. She couldn't even come up with any ammunition to fight him with.

"But I on the other hand," Chuck said, stroking her bare arm and she realized her mistake in thinking he was just there to torture her, "have completely ulterior motives."

"Evidently," she said icily. His hand still caressed the skin of her arm and she wished her raised flesh wasn't giving her away.

She was wrong.

"I know you feel it," Chuck whispered, going in for the kill. "I know you wish had had let me take you to my bed that night. I would have deflowered you like Nathaniel will never be able to. And you'd like it. You know there's something between us. It's only a matter of time before it happens."

"Before what does?" she snapped, even out of curiosity.

"The inevitable."

* * *

She looked elegant. That was as much as he could say considering he knew that she wanted the halter instead. But he knew the power of persuasion that Eleanor Waldorf had that it rivaled his own father's. And when Serena showed up, it made everything worse for her.

He held his scarf to his bleeding nose, his eyes grazing her bare shoulders.

At least there was that.

"She better not show her face again."

And they had fallen back into place. They scheming, the manipulations. He liked it better this way. He liked being on her side because immediately, he knew that she was enlisting him.

"I'm actually hoping she will," he answered, as she looked over her shoulder, taking in his beaten appearance.

Walking away, he was sure of it. It was only a matter of time.

And to behold his success, it would be as little as not even two months before he made good on his promise in the back of his limo.


End file.
